This blog Haiti Solutions supports the growth of political and economic freedom, good governance and human rights in Haiti by educating Haitian citizens, parties and governments on the values and practices of democracy.

The international community has justifiably
condemned a decision by the supreme court of the Dominican Republic revoking
the citizenship of as many as 350,000 Dominicans of Haitian decent. Unfortunately, that decision in
September was just the latest in a pattern of cynical, partisan actions that
threaten the rule of law and economic growth in that nation. Dominicans of goodwill must act to
restore the probity and independence of their institutions to secure a better
future for all of its citizens.

Early this month, the respected Inter-American
Commission on Human Rights paid an urgent visit to that country to study the
implications of the decision to retroactively apply a 2010 constitutional
amendment that redefined citizenship rights, effectively stripping multitudes
of their “right to nationality.” The
Commission urgently issued a series of unambiguous recommendations insisting
that the Dominican state take “simple, clear, fast, and fair” steps to “guarantee
the right to nationality of those individuals who already had this right”
before the ruling.

The court’s decision
has been defended as a measure needed to address legitimate concerns over
illegal immigration. However, even
before this draconian court decision was issued, electoral authorities had
refused to provide voter identification cards to thousands of persons of Haitian
background. That is a clue that
this dubious decision is likely a shameless political maneuver of the ruling
Dominican Liberation Party (PLD) to disqualify voters of Haitian descent who
tend to vote overwhelmingly for the opposition Dominican Revolutionary Party
(PRD). For example, the late José FranciscoPeña Gómez, the proud son of
Haitian immigrants, was a pillar of the PRD.

The PLD’s boss, former
president Leonel Fernández, has named his partisans to the supreme court and
the electoral tribunal—which explains why these important institutions of the
state serve his political interests. For example, the current chief justice, Mariano Germán Mejía,
was Fernández’s law partner, and another justice, Marta Olga Garcia,
is the sister-in-law of Miguel Vargas, a fellow caudillo with whom Fernández is conspiring to hijack the opposition
PRD.

Although the electoral
tribunal is supposed to be a panel of impartial magistrates who run all
national elections, its members were chosen based on their loyalty to Fernández
and/or the ruling PLD. Fernández has
wielded his absolute control of tribunal to rig recent elections to deny the
opposition party proportional representation in the congress; for example,
although the PRD won nearly 42 percent of the nationwide vote in 2010, it
claimed only one of 32 Senate seats.

The former president’s
egregious manipulation of state institutions to build a “one-party state,” is
chronicled in a report issued in
November by the prestigious Washington, DC, think tank, the Center for
Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), authored by veteran U.S. Senate
advisor Carl Meacham. Meacham
highlights a brazen maneuver by Fernández to make a pact with former PRD
candidate Miguel Vargas to usurp control of the PRD, oust the party’s strongest
leaders, and undermine party’s ability to muster a viable campaign
against the ruling PLD.

“The Superior Electoral Tribunal (TSE) has
ensured the continued disunity of the PRD,” Meacham reports. “Given its discretionary involvement in
preserving Miguel Vargas’ PRD presidency—and its decision not to engage in the
party’s expulsion of former president Hipólito Mejía—some fear that the TSE is
playing an undue and decisive role in crippling the PLD’s primary opposition.” https://csis.org/files/publication/131111_Meacham_DominicanRepublic_Web.pdf

Dysfunctional institutions will trap all
Dominicans in corruption and economic decline. According to Transparency International (TI), the country is
ranked 123rd place in the world terms of corruption; only Venezuela,
Paraguay, Honduras and Nicaragua have worse ratings in the Americas. A State Department report this year
noted that, “Corruption remains endemic at all levels of Dominican society. Dominican law enforcement, military, and
government officials are often accused of a range of corrupt activities
including narcotics trafficking, money laundering, extrajudicial killing and
other crimes.” http://www.state.gov/j/inl/rls/nrcrpt/2013/vol1/204049.htm#Dominican_Republic

Not surprisingly, the CSIS report notes that Fernández
or his allies have been accused of corruption, money laundering and other
serious crimes. For example,
Vargas was accused in sworn testimony earlier this year of accepting $300,000
from reputed drug kingpin Jose David Figueroa Agosto in 2008.

Haitian Dominicans are
not the only citizens paying a price for systematic corruption. Perhaps the current international
scandal generated by the supreme court’s careless ruling will spur the nation’s
political class and civil society to agree on an urgent overhaul of its
judicial and electoral institutions.
Only then will the Dominican Republic return to being a good neighbor
and productive partner for both the region and the United States.

The author was U.S.
ambassador to the OAS and assistant secretary of state during the George W.
Bush administration. He is a
visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and managing director of
Vision Americas LLC, which represents U.S. and foreign clients.

13 fire fighters from Haiti led by Chief Ardouin Zephirin arrived in Rockville for two weeks of fire and rescue training at Montgomery County Fire Rescue Training Academy http://www.rockvilleliving.com/blog/entries/2009_05_firefighters_from_haiti

Stanley Lucas and Richard R. Bowers, Jr, Chief of the Montgomery County (MD) Fire and Rescue Service (MCFRS